L’institutionnalisation de la coopération transfrontalière entre collectivités locales / Die Institutionalisierung der grenzüberschreitenden Zusammenarbeit zwischen lokalen Gebietskörperschaften

The contribution is assigned to the area of public law and applies an indicative method. It presents the entire breadth of bodies of cross-border cooperation that have developed along the borders of continental France that borders eight adjacent states, and potentially their regional subdivisions. First, it introduces national bodies that are only of lesser interest, i.e. associations under private law that are present in all the examined legal systems, specific bodies under French law (in particular "sociétés d’économie mixte locale" [local mixed-economy companies] and European districts) and bodies under foreign law (in particular in Spain, in Wallonia, in Baden-Württemberg and in Rhineland-Palatinate). Secondly, it introduces supranational bodies. In particular, the ones that use the technique of legal harmonisation are successful in practice (cross-border local administration union (grenzüberschreitender örtliche Zweckverband; GÖZ), European Grouping of Territorial Co-operation (EGTC), association for Euro-regional cooperation (Verbund für euroregionale Zusammenarbeit; VEZ)), while others that still come from the early phase of the law on cross-border cooperation (working groups from the mountain area) are receding.

Table of contents:

• Introduction
• Low interest in national bodies
• Specific bodies under French law
• Local mixed-economic company (SEML)
• The "cross-border local administration union" (grenzüberschreitende örtliche Zweckverband; GÖZ), called a European district
• The bodies intended in the legal systems of France's neighbours
• The "syndicat mixte" [administration union]
• The regional association in Baden-Württemberg and the planning association of Rhineland-Palatinate
• Medium interest in supranational bodies
• The success of partially consistent bodies of cross-border cooperation
• The cross-border local administration union (grenzüberschreitende örtliche Zweckverband; GÖZ)
• European Grouping of Territorial Co-operation (EGTC)
• The association for Euro-regional cooperation (Verbund für euroregionale Zusammenarbeit; VEZ)
• The reduction of atypical bodies of cross-border cooperation
• The crisis of existing associations in the form of regional work groups
• The marginalisation of a "rerouted" body, the European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG)
• Conclusion